The elevator sighs open on the 40th floor. Ozone and burnt wiring hit Apollo like a wall, and the lobby beyond flickers under a dying alarm light.
Ahead, tan-clad rival operators crouch around the server room door, tools out, heavy cases splayed across the tile. They are busy, not blind, and not alone.
Apollo
The lock is almost through.
Apollo steps clear of the elevator threshold, black kit swallowing the dim light. His rifle hangs ready, still low, as he measures the room.
The Lead Operator
Hold. Someone just came off the lift.
One operator snaps upright, weapon half-raised. Another slaps at a keypad panel, trying to keep the breach moving while the alarm stutters overhead.
The Lead Operator
Back off, wolf. This floor is ours.
The server room door gives a sharp metallic click, not fully open yet, but close enough to turn this into a race or a firefight.
✓ Quest Accepted
Force the rival PMC to retreat
“Fire rifle at the Lead Operator”
SUCCESS (Legendary Firearms, rolled -1)
Apollo fires once. The rifle cracks in the lobby, and the Lead Operator jerks backward as the shot takes him out of the fight.
The operator at the panel flinches hard, hands slipping off the bypass gear as sparks spit from the lock housing.
The Lead Operator
Down! Get the door, now!
The Third Operator ducks deeper behind the cases, then snaps his head toward the elevator, torn between covering the breach and surviving it.
The Operator at the Panel
I need ten seconds, maybe less, just keep them off me!
The server room lock clicks, then stalls half-open with an ugly grind, while the alarm keeps strobing over the spilled gear.
For a beat, the rival team is pinned and wavering, and the way forward is suddenly theirs to abandon or die for.
“Toss a frag grenade”
SUCCESS (Legendary Firearms, rolled +1)
Apollo’s grenade leaves his hand and skips low across the lobby floor, spinning through the strobing haze toward the server room breach.
It clatters by the half-open lock, bounces once, and settles inside the narrow pocket of cover where the operators have been dug in.
The Operator at the Panel
Grenade!
The Third Operator
Back, back, move!
The panel operator bolts away from the doorframe, hands up and body hunched, while the third operator tears out from behind the cases toward the elevators.
The blast hammers the lobby in a white flash and a hard concussion, rattling loose debris and killing the alarm’s rhythm for a beat.
When the smoke rolls back, the server room mouth is empty, gear abandoned, and the rival team is already in full retreat.
Quest Complete
Force the rival PMC to retreat
Fault Removed: Lone wolf